Michelin-Recognized Favorite Adds an $85 Chef’s Table Tasting Menu — Belly Of the Beast’s Thomas Bille Gets Creative

Spring’s Michelin-recognized Belly of the Beast restaurant is putting on special intimate, limited seating diners with a new Chef’s Table option starting this month. This an $85 multi-course seasonal tasting menu guided by Chef Thomas Bille. Bille won Best Texas Chef honors from the James Beard Foundation in 2025 and $85 for a tasting menu from a chef of this caliber is a deal.

Wednesdays through Saturdays there are two Chef’s Table seatings available nightly at 6 pm and 8 pm. You can book from one to four seats to enjoy a menu that’s different from Belly of the Beast’s dining room’s offerings, with a close connection between the kitchen and table.  The experience also includes an optional wine pairing (a $50 add on) designed to complement the menu and highlight the food that Bille selects.

Belly of the Beast closes twice annually, during the summer and after New Year’s to allow owners Elizabeth and Thomas Bille and the staff time to recharge. During these recharges, the special dinners began to take shape. A Chef’s Table experience has been on Thomas Bille’s mind for more than a year.

“The whole last year, all through 2025, the whole reason we even have those four seats was to do a chef’s counter,” Thomas tells PaperCity The Woodlands. “It was from the moment that we opened this restaurant. We knew that we wanted to do something there, something intimate, something different, something more.

“I mean, we’re already a chef driven restaurant, but just something to feed the creativity even more.

“So this year, when we came back from vacation, we’re starting from zero, right? Because we had to restart everything. So I said, ‘You know, if I’m gonna prep for the restaurant, I’m gonna prep for the tasting menu.’ So we implemented it day one, great, our first day back.”

Diving Into Belly of the Beast’s Chef’s Table

Diners can expect that they will spend 60 to 90 minutes at the Chef’s Table.

Right now, the first three courses are small, handheld size items. Thomas Bille’s menu starts with a scallop on the half shell, and moves to a buñuelo topped with caviar. A king crab roll on a brioche roll is next. Then it’s time for the lobster raviolo and a Texas Waygu strip loin steak.  The dessert is pure banana, “a plantain puree with banana bread and then bruleed banana, and then banana pudding, ice cream and chips.”

Billie doesn’t want diners to be intimated by the accolades Belly of the Beast has earned.

“We want to welcome our community all walks of life,” he says. “Here, we want them to enjoy a very high-end, chef-driven, with high quality ingredients — just an overall great meal — without having to go to Napa Valley or into the city or New York.”

Reservations for both the Chef’s Table seatings and the regular dining room are available through OpenTable.